Need help with pastry please

[SourRoses]

Any advise would be appreciated ! I am Tired of paying for frozen pastry and I usually buy flaky pastry for my meat pies...I tried making a shortcrust last night and it was tough as could be...surely it can't be that hard to make? I don't have a food processer (I have seen a few recipes that say to use one) I want to make both shortcrust and flaky..please

 

[wyoDreamer]

For a flakey pie crust, I use the recipe out of my Betty Crcker cookbook. BUT- I use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening (Crisco). butter makes it tastey, Shortening makes it flakey.

Measure 2 cups of flour into bowl.
Stir in 1 teasooon of salt.

Using a 2 cup glass measuring cup - fill with 1 cup of cold water. Add shortening to measure 1/3 cup. Dump out the water and drop shortening into the bowl with the flour. Add 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter.

Cut solids into flour with a pastry knife until it the particles are the size of small peas.

Add COLD water into dough - 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring in with a fork until pastry almost cleans the sides of the bowl. About 4 - 5 tablespoons. I fill teh same glass measuring cup that I used to measure the shortening with cold water and measure out of that, it is alot easier than trying to measure a tablespoon at a time from the faucet.

Gather the pastry into a ball and presstogether. Wrap with plastic wrap and put in fridge for 1 hour - make 2 balls for a double crust.

 

[SourRoses]

Thank you wyoDreamer for taking the time to do that for me! I will try this as soon as I can....I think..apart from not using crisco aswell (as you suggested) and I didnt ball it up and refridgerate before rolling it out...thats why mine was so dreadfull LOL practice makes perfect eh? Thanks again

 

[wyoDreamer]

Make sure it is just wet enough to pack together into a ball. Working it too much will make it tough.
also, I roll mine between two sheets of wax paper. It makes it easier to transfer into the pie plate.

I looked at my directions: ONLY 1/3 cup of shortening !! you can use lard instead of crisco also, I usually can't find any in the store.